Cooking on Turning Spit or Grill. By Sylvian Clusells

Arthur Barker Limited, 1961. Translated by Charles Liebman. Hard cover, 254 pages. Endpapers foxed. Gift inscription in front. Under 1kg.

SYLVAIN CLUSELLS is unusual both as a chef and as a man. He not only established an international reputation for himself as a brilliant chef of the Escoffier class, but also as a reformer, for he restored the oldest human device for cooking meat, fish, poultry and game-the turning spit-to its rightful place of honour in kitchen and grill room. Then, when blindness struck, two years ago, forcing him into inactivity, it also inspired him to dictate, out of his darkness, and as a challenge to despair, one of the most fascinating of cookery books. Fascinating not because his recipes contain exotic ingredients, but because readers of this book will never again wish to use an oven or frying pan in preference to a turning spit or grill. Most French cookery books, however famous in their own country, tend to fall rather flat over here. British stomachs seem to be even more chauvinist than the rest of our anatomy. In the case of this book, however, there can be no qualms-the turning spit is as British in origin as steak-and-kidney-pie, kippers, Yorkshire pudding or haggis. No self-respecting chef before 1914 would have dreamt of using an oven for roasting. Clusells' book is timely for we are about to witness a grand renaissance of spit-roasting and grilling. Dishes cooked in this way LOOK better, SMELL better, TASTE better, are done FASTER, more CLEANLY, are more easily DIGESTIBLE and LESS FATTENING. Sylvain Clusells' own recipes and advice are supplemented by contributions from some of France's foremost gourmets and chefs who, together with the author, eleven years ago revived the world's oldest order of gastronomy-the Confrerie de la Chaine des Rotisseurs, founded in 1248 by Louis IX of France. This unique book will be welcomed by experienced and inexperienced cooks alike.